dreaming borges?
This really happened.
Last night I woke up thinking about -- something "big", something like "my life as a whole". And I had an insight that at first struck me as kind of silly and funny, but then began to reveal deeper layers -- and I said to myself, "that's one of the most profound revelations I've ever had." The feeling was that I had just made sense of something that had never made sense to me, that had troubled me for a long time. The relief which washed over me was very much like that relief that accompanies deep, authentic laughter.
Then I realized I was still in the process of waking up. I bet I won't be able to remember this when I wake up completely, I thought. At that moment I did wake up completely -- and, of course, wasn't able to remember anything save for the relief accompanying the insight and the fear of forgetting it.
3 Comments:
I think some of our greatest insights might be ineffable or perhaps the sort of morph into something else as they're packaged for the conscious mind.
Thank you, Karlo.
Strictly speaking, I suppose I'd take the psuedo-Wittgensteinian route and say that a truly ineffable insight might be something of a contradiction in terms -- or at least an incoherent notion. If it can't be "packaged for the conscious mind" in language, then it may be a feeling -- even a profound and "real" one -- but it's not necessarily an insight.
On the other hand, there are patterns, and to recognize a pattern may amount to "knowing what it means to go on in the same way", to apply the pattern in varying circumstances. Yet, to me, a certian "leap" occurs when we recognize such a pattern and find ourselves capable of bringing it to conscious articulation in language ("summing it up" might be a clearer way of putting it). This leap is what I'd like to call "having the insight", and I'd even venture that it's a leap over an infinite gap . . .
I think it's the latter sort of insight that I experienced. I noticed a very broad pattern, perhaps centering on my own life, that I hadn't noticed before and I was, for a moment, capable of articulating this pattern in language.
At least I think that's what happened. All I really remember is the feeling of having the insight. Which may be all it was, given that I was half-asleep.
That's bizarre timing. I awoke YESTERDAY with a feeling very similar to what you describe. Mine was more that I was remembering that there was an amazing technique or formula for interpreting almost all human interaction and that this was something that I already knew but had forgotten. I kept thinking "did I actually forget this or am I dreaming something new and dreaming that I knew it before?" I had an incredible sense of excitement combined with a feeling of peace about this process. Excitement because of the fun of finding more and more ways to apply it and coming to a deeper understanding of the process as I did so; peace because I had a revelation that would always be there.
When I fully awoke I did not resolve the question of whether I was actually trying to remember something or not but I did remember something I came up with as a youth. That was: every letter of the alphabet can be seen as a symbol of a different kind of relationship. Curves represent group bonds or the drive toward group preservation and straight lines represent the forces of individuality or the drive toward power.
For instance: the letter "D" is like a cult. One powerful figure and a whole group that is tied together by that figure. The letter "A" could represent the principles of U.S. government: 3 powers balancing each other, 2 sides whose opposition dominates the relationship (the Executive and Legislative branches) and a third who has a less visible role but whose power cuts into the powers of the others (the Judicial).
The letter "O" would be a collective without a designated leader, "Q" would be a similar group but controlled by an outside force. You get the idea...
You should drop me an email sometime soon.
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